"If this venture succeeded...."

Another young mother would have loved such a reassurance, though no parent would wish on a child the life of a seer. Č. had just given up any hope of a simple domestic life. Even with all the trappings of the court, she would have been content to be the duke’s wife, raising their children, doing what she might for the people of the duchy, growing old with V. No more.

If this venture succeeded she would take on all the cares of ruling the land her father once ruled. If it failed, then the fate of her family would be in question.

She had to leave little D. behind for safety. She knew he was in good hands but she had never been away from her child. V. was with her and she had the company of friends but this was a journey she dreaded.

I do such unpleasant things to characters I love. Then again, if I didn't there would be no story. The movement in music, the overall arc of a piece, depends on dissonance. So flaws, foibles, mishaps, chance, and the actions of jerks and a******s all combine to take my characters where they would rather not go or do to them what they would rather not have done.

I told Mimi that I might have to dedicate this volume to the Theotokos: the mother-child theme is so strong in it.

Then again, reality keeps intruding. It is far easier to write about family in a novel than to live with family in real life. My books are escapist reading. I try to keep the families interesting and most behavior understandable at a minimum and quite often solidly noble.

A note on the vision of domestic bliss being abandoned here. The princess had a nightmare life her first fourteen years. She is only eighteen now and the mother of a one-year-old. A quiet life is her deepest desire as she has had enough of the extraordinary (and exceptionally evil). Her desire to just be a wife and mother has context and most of my women characters want a whole lot more than that. You might say this princess has classic PTSD and is now headed to the land where it all happened. She rides, knowingly, into the realm of her memories. One cannot blame her for wanting the safe and the dull. I quite admire the bravery that allows her to do this against the instinct of her entire being. (Just so ya don't think she's a simpering Barbie doll.)

Sweet dreams, my angelic aardvarks!

--the BB